Erica Vowles

Dec 9, 2024 | abc.net.au | Erica Vowles

AI-powered mental health tools have exploded in the past year. Psychologists are using AI tools to record sessions and write case notes. An Australian-developed AI-chat bot is fielding questions from employees about their mental health problems. And researchers are investigating if consumers will feel comfortable with AI-generated posts on mental health forums.

Dec 4, 2024 | abc.net.au | Erica Vowles

Housing is so unaffordable that some are forced to share a home with more people than there are beds. A new study into share-room housing has found that some people are sharing rooms that contain multiple beds, and each bed may have several occupants who sleep in shifts. This practice, known as hot bedding, brings considerable health and safety risks.

Nov 27, 2024 | abc.net.au | Erica Vowles

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests that the Federal Government's 2020 HomeBuilder scheme helped to super charge demand for the construction sector, at a time when demand was already high with low interest rates. This, along with material and skills shortages, has helped to drive up construction costs, and ABS data shows that the time to complete houses has blown out. At the same time, many construction businesses have gone bust, leaving consumers with half-finished homes.

Nov 25, 2024 | abc.net.au | Erica Vowles

One in five young people have tried vaping, and experts are concerned that use of e-cigarettes will only increase without intervention. To address this, the Federal Government is funding the rapid expansion of a program that targets students in year 7 and 8, with the aim of empowering them to resist the urge to vape. This is alongside moves to restrict the sale of vapes to pharmacies only, with flavours restricted to tobacco, mint and methanol.

Nov 20, 2024 | abc.net.au | Anna Kelsey-Sugg |Erica Vowles

After briefly dating a man in 2015, Di McDonald ended the relationship. Then he began arriving uninvited and unannounced at her home. "I'd ask him to leave me alone, [then] he'd come to my work," she tells ABC Radio National's Life Matters. For three years the man stalked Ms McDonald, and he was eventually charged and jailed. But it took five years of police involvement, interventions and court trials to get to that. Ms McDonald says she was often left unsupported to navigate complex legal systems.